A Sterling Performance 14 October 1998

Ha ha. Cmon, I hadda.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the speech by Bruce Sterling I attended tonight, naturally. A great evening. It's so wonderful to hear a combination of truth, nasty humor, semi-profound ideas, art-movement snobbery, science, and design philosophy. And nary a slide!

I just wish I had brought a hand-held tape recorder with me or something. I could just give quote after quote, if only I remembered them. One of my favorites: "People in the 21st Century will look back on our era and say, 'They were so decadent, they had a porn-based coup d'etat!'"

Mostly, he was there to talk about his design for a new art movement, the Viridian Greens. You should go read the pre-release beta version of the January 3, 2000 kickoff manifesto that's at that link. I know, I tell you things like this all the time, but honestly now, you'll be glad you did.

His central idea, in the tiny inadequate shell of a nut, is that everything is irrelevant if we let the climate go to pieces; what we need to do is make CO₂ use declassé. Green needs to be seductive to the rich and near-rich, who after all are the ones doing the most damage. (In world terms, that would be ALL of you. Me too. Let's just remember that.)

I like the idea of a designed design movement - as he said, it's the natural next step now that we have a culture industry instead of a culture. He went through the 14 advantages of his design. Well, 13 advantages and 1 drawback, the drawback being the theocratic dictatorship of the movement's leader - him. I think that's a flaw we can overcome, though.

This will not be a movement that goes after "the young people." "I don't care if young people are interested or not. I think we should leave them alone, young people have suffered enough. Leave them to their own culture, their pirated MP3 audio and their baggy castoff clothing." Instead, Sterling proposes that it specifically target old people - there'll be lots of them, it's their fault, they have the time.

The Viridians are interested in drugs, like any good movement - drugs like Viagra. Or any life-extension drugs. See targeting old people. "As anyone can tell you, the older you get, the more your mind is definitely altered."

"Do you agree with David Brin about encryption, that we're better off with an open society than a closed one?" "Well, I know David Brin, and he's a crank. Next?"

ALSO: The Featured Non-Profit of the evening was The Chemical Scorecard, an immensely cool site put together by the Environmental Defense Fund. Put in your zip code and find out what's being dumped into your local surroundings. If you don't like it, find the biggest offenders and send them a fax about it. All in about 4 steps. Personally, I'm getting 17,641 pounds of methanol in my neighborhood. And that's not counting the bar! Go look. It's neat.

News from work: don't ask. Grumble.

Willfully blind self-indulgent nebbish or amusingly quirky old coot? And how bout that local sports team? Discuss among yourselves.

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